PowerPivot for Advanced Reporting and Dashboards

Transcription

1 PowerPivot for Advanced Reporting and Dashboards Robert Bosco J Chapter No. 1 "Principles and Installing PowerPivot"

2 In this package, you will find: A Biography of the author of the book A preview chapter from the book, Chapter NO.1 "Principles and Installing PowerPivot" A synopsis of the book s content Information on where to buy this book About the Author Robert Bosco J is a BI Reports Developer and holds an international Master's degree in Business Intelligence from Université Tours François Rabelais, Blois, France, along with an internship as a BI Analyst at Yomii (a French e-commerce company for design products) in Paris, France. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from the Oxford Engineering college, Tiruchirappalli, India. Robert also worked as a Data Processing Executive at Meritgroup Ltd., India, before pursuing his Master's. I would like to especially thank Packt Publishing for giving me this great opportunity to write the book, and the reviewers, Mr. Ceriel van Halle and Mr. Luis Guilamo, for being a great help in making this book accurate. I dedicate this book to my parents, John Peter and Sepasthi, for educating me and supporting me in pursuing my Master's. I would like to thank my elder and younger sisters, Anitha and Femina, who have always encouraged me in order to grow in my career. I pass on my gratitude to all my professors from Université Tours François Rabelais for introducing me to the world of Business Intelligence technologies. Thanks to them, I was able to write this book, and my heartfelt gratitude to my colleagues Chandramouly P, Nooman Hussain, and Parag Mohite for their help and suggestions in the editing process of this book.

3 PowerPivot for Advanced Reporting and Dashboards Welcome to Powerpivot for Advanced Reporting and Dashboards. This book aims to teach readers on how to use PowerPivot to create advanced reports and prepare dashboards, all from the familiar Excel interface, and how to publish reports using the SharePoint Server. This book will cover all the fundamentals of Business Intelligence and reporting concepts with PowerPivot in the real world. We have prepared five chapters in order to be precise with the PowerPivot technologies; each and every chapter will give you a prominent idea about the PowerPivot tool. At the end of this book, users will be well-versed with PowerPivot tools in order to create advanced reports. What This Book Covers Chapter 1, Principles and Installing PowerPivot, illustrates quick installation of PowerPivot, some of its features, the differences in Excel's 32-bit and 64-bit version of PowerPivot, and vital information about the principles of PowerPivot, which will leverage the user's ability to work on self-service Business Intelligence. Chapter 2, Preparation Analysis of Data Source, helps users explore ways to prepare data for analysis. Different types of data sources that can be imported into the PowerPivot interface have been described. A general overview of the ETL process has also been given. Users will get to now know how the ETL process works in the PowerPivot interface. An introduction to DAX and its advantages are also explained. Chapter 3, Data Model, provides the user with clear information about data models' features and fundamental concepts of relationship and hierarchy. The user by now will know how the ETL process is performed in PowerPivot. One of the most important things is the DAX expression and how to use it to make structured data from unstructured data. Finally, the user will learn how to turn data from the heterogeneous type to homogeneous.

4 Chapter 4, Business Intelligence Solutions Analysis, gives users a great idea about Business Intelligence Solutions Analysis. The user must know the general concepts of BI report creation and how to make an analysis based on the data, and importance of the reports. By now, the user would know how a variety of data sources will appear on one single screen as a dashboard report. By the end of this chapter, the user will have knowledge of business scorecards, benefits, and a general idea of Perspectives, types of Perspectives, and so on. Chapter 5, Publishing Reports Using the SharePoint Server, explores the various ways a user can publish and schedule the created PowerPivot report in a SharePoint Server. The user will get more information on deployment of PowerPivot reports.

5 Principles and Installing PowerPivot The PowerPivot add-in was developed for Microsoft Excel 2010 and supports its later versions. It does not support Microsoft Excel 2007, but in Microsoft Excel 2007, a user can only open the workbook since they are created in the.xlsx format. In Microsoft Excel 2007 users can only do Excel-level changes to the worksheet, such as change the color, font, and styles, but cannot interact with PivotTables and PivotCharts. When users upgrade PowerPivot, they can use the workbooks created in the previous versions but the opposite is not possible. This chapter will cover the following topics: The principle of PowerPivot for Excel The benefits of using PowerPivot Installing PowerPivot Verification of the installation The principle of PowerPivot for Excel PowerPivot is a powerful data analysis tool with advanced reporting; it leverages self-service business intelligence for everyone. PowerPivot is a free add-in for Microsoft Excel 2010 that enables the user to import massive amounts of data from a variety of sources and manipulates it into one workbook, which means PowerPivot helps in solving heterogeneous problems. Millions of rows of data can be accessed in seconds.

6 Principles and Installing PowerPivot PowerPivot is a business intelligence tool of Microsoft, known as Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBI). In PowerPivot, the features, functionalities, calculations, and report visualization are like other traditional BI tools. PowerPivot is based on xvelocity in-memory technologies, providing unmatched analytical performance and calculation capabilities to process billions of rows at the speed of thought using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) functions. Basically, DAX is a business logic of PowerPivot and is used for data manipulation. DAX functions are very basic and easy to learn, even for a person who doesn't have a technical background. The following figure explains the architecture of PowerPivot and how it works in Excel: MS Excel 2010 PowerPivot for Excel SQL Server Analysis Service(SSAS) Object Models In-process data engine (Analysis Services In VertiPaq mode) supported data sources Architecture of PowerPivot in Excel PowerPivot for Excel uses the Analysis Services xvelocity in-memory analytics engine (VertiPaq) that runs in-process in Excel and helps in importing data from a variety of data sources. The data that the user adds to the workbook is stored internally just like an embedded PowerPivot database inside the.xlsx file and data processing is done through this engine; it compresses and loads the data and makes it available as visualization objects, such as PivotTables and PivotCharts, in a worksheet. There are no administration or configuration tasks that need to be performed in PowerPivot. The engine is an internal component of PowerPivot, which is an add-in to Excel. PowerPivot gives drag-and-drop methods to users. Users can perform aggregation, filtering, create metrics by using DAX, and create diverse reports like PivotTables, PivotCharts, and KPIs. There are three principles, namely, preparation, integration and aggregation, and data analysis. There will be brief explanations about PowerPivot in this book, based on the following figure: [ 6 ]

7 Chapter 1 Principles of PowerPivot Benefits of using PowerPivot Today it's quite difficult to find successful industries that have not leveraged BI technologies. Hence, everyone seeks BI tools for their data analysis and reporting purposes in order to make business decisions. In that case, PowerPivot meets their expectations and produces advanced reporting. Most organizations spend a lot of time using Excel for data analysis, but don't allocate adequate time to fully analyze the data. By using PowerPivot, you can analyze the data in less time. It also has more advanced features than Excel, along with a seamless integration with the powerful visualization features of Excel. Some organizations have stored their data in different kinds of sources such as RDBMS, flat files, and CSVs. For these organizations, usage of ETL tools to create integration and data models and usage of some reporting tools for data analysis and reporting will be very helpful. However, since many forms of BI and ETL products are quite expensive for small organizations, PowerPivot may be used instead, since it is very feasible for these kinds of processes. The vital advantage of PowerPivot is that you can do the analysis without the knowledge of SQL and Multidimensional Expressions (MDX). It's very user-friendly and has an easily understandable Graphical User Interface (GUI). [ 7 ]

8 Principles and Installing PowerPivot Installing PowerPivot Here you can find the installation requirements of the PowerPivot add-in for Microsoft Excel 2010 only. There is no need to follow this installation requirement for the Excel 2013 PowerPivot version, since the PowerPivot add-in would have already installed when the installation of your Microsoft Office 2013 package was completed. So, if you have successfully installed the Excel 2013 version on your computer, you only have to enable the PowerPivot add-in. You will find related information in the following pages on how to enable your PowerPivot add-in for Excel Requirements (32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows) Machines that will be used to create PowerPivot workbooks must meet the following minimum hardware and software requirements for Office Hardware requirements Before installation of the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2010, make sure that the following hardware requirements are met for the machine on which the PowerPivot is being loaded: Component Processor RAM Storage space Minimum requirements 500 MHz, 32-bit or 64-bit. 2 to 4 GB of RAM is feasible. The add-in will take 25 MB of RAM and additionally 33 MB will be filled when the first PivotTable is added to the worksheet. The 32-bit version of PowerPivot enables you to work with up to 2 GB of data in memory and the 64-bit version of PowerPivot enables you to work with up to 4 GB of data in memory. 100 MB is required for program files and additional disk space is required for storing the workbook. The storage will vary based on the amount of data that you are going to analyze using PowerPivot. There is no way to know the disk requirement in advance, so it is advisable to check the disk space before saving the workbook. [ 8 ]

9 Chapter 1 Software requirements Make sure the following software requirements are met for the machine on which PowerPivot is being loaded: Component Operating system Windows features Excel version Minimum requirements Windows 7 and 8, Windows Vista SP2, and Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only). Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 or Windows 8 Microsoft.NET Framework 4.5 (to be installed before installing Microsoft Office). Microsoft Excel 2010 (either 32-bit or 64-bit). Office features Office shared features must be installed with Excel NET programmability support in Microsoft Excel must also be installed. Visual Studio 2010 tools for Office runtime (to be installed before or after Office, but before using PowerPivot for Excel). Recommendations The 64-bit version and the 32-bit version of Microsoft Excel PowerPivot have some differences. The 32-bit version, as compared to the 64-bit version, lacks some important features for large data users. The 32-bit version of Windows allows only up to 1 million rows, which sums up to 2 GB of data to be managed and MB of file size. If this limit is exceeded, data inconsistencies can occur. When using such large volumes of data, it is recommended you switch to Windows 64-bit, since the 64-bit version of PowerPivot can manage 4 GB of data and 2 GB of file size. But in Excel 2013, for the 64-bit version of PowerPivot, all these limitations have been removed. It means that, the only restriction that is placed on the physical data is that of one's own machine. Users of the 32-bit Windows version of Microsoft PowerPivot will be able to manage data satisfactorily as long as the 1 million row limit is observed. Fast and efficient performance analysis with sufficient amounts of memory for larger volumes of data is attainable for those using the 64-bit version of Windows. [ 9 ]

10 Principles and Installing PowerPivot Getting the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2010 Before downloading the free PowerPivot add-in, you have to determine if you are using the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Excel If you have installed the 32- bit version of Excel, you must install the 32-bit version of PowerPivot for Excel. Likewise, if you have installed the 64-bit version of Excel, you must install the 64-bit version of PowerPivot for Excel. In order to know which version of Excel 2010 you have installed on your computer, perform the following steps: 1. Open Microsoft Excel Click on File from the menu bar. 3. Select Help. 4. Note the version of Excel you have installed on your computer. Identifying the version of Excel 2010 Downloading and installing the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2010 The download and installation of the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2010 is easily done with the help of the following instructions: 1. Go to aspx?id= Select the language and click on the Download button. [ 10 ]

11 3. Select the version you want to download and click on the Next button. 4. Once you have clicked on the Next button, your setup file will be downloaded. 5. Double-click on the setup file and then click on Run. 6. Click on Next to get started. 7. Accept the license agreement and then click on Next. 8. Click on Install. 9. Click on Finish. Chapter 1 Completing the installation Enabling the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2013 If PowerPivot in Excel 2013 has already been installed on your Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus package, but wasn't enabled, to enable the add-in, perform the following instructions: 1. Open Excel Navigate to File Options Add-Ins. 3. In the Manage box select COM Add-ins and click on the Go... button. 4. Check the PowerPivot for Excel box, and then click on OK. [ 11 ]

12 Principles and Installing PowerPivot If you have other versions of the PowerPivot add-in installed, those versions will also be listed in the COM Add-ins list. Be sure to select the PowerPivot add-in for Excel Now, enable the PowerPivot add-in in your Excel Enabling the PowerPivot add-in If the PowerPivot add-in does not appear in the Excel ribbon, you have to troubleshoot using the following instructions: 1. Open Excel Navigate to File Options Add-Ins. 3. In the Manage box, select Disabled Items and then click on Go. 4. Select PowerPivot for Excel and then click on Enable. 5. Now PowerPivot will be enabled. [ 12 ]

13 Verifying installation After installing the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2010 or enabling the PowerPivot add-in for Excel 2013, you must verify and test the add-in to check if it has been installed and enabled properly. Testing the PowerPivot add-in In order to test the PowerPivot add-in, perform the following steps: Chapter 1 1. Open Excel. Your PowerPivot tab will be displayed on the Excel ribbon, as shown in the following figure: PowerPivot tab on the Excel ribbon 2. Click on PowerPivot Window. A new PowerPivot workbook will open, as shown in the following figure. From here, data will be imported from a variety of sources. Creation of a data model and making advanced reports will also be done here. Upon completion of this book, users will have a clear understanding of these wizards. PowerPivot workbook [ 13 ]

14 Principles and Installing PowerPivot Summary This chapter illustrates quick installation, some features and differences of Excel 32- bit and 64-bit versions of PowerPivot, and the vital information about the principles of PowerPivot, which will leverage the user's ability to work on self-service business intelligence. In the next chapter, a brief description about the first principle (preparations for data analysis) will be given, which will explain the different types of data sources a user can import and how different types of data sources will help the users in their analysis. These functionalities will correlate with some real-time examples, helping the user gain sufficient understanding to make Microsoft PowerPivot easy. [ 14 ]

15 Where to buy this book You can buy PowerPivot for Advanced Reporting and Dashboards from the Packt Publishing website: Free shipping to the US, UK, Europe and selected Asian countries. For more information, please read our shipping policy. Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet book retailers.